Lyondell has no major planned maintenance for global assets in Q2 2021 -CEO

HOUSTON (Reuters) -Petrochemical producer Lyondell Basell Industries does not plan to perform major maintenance at its global assets, including a Houston refinery, in the second quarter of 2021, said Chief Executive Bob Patel during a Friday morning conference call with Wall Street analysts.

"Deferred turnarounds from 2020 are resulting in high levels of planned maintenance downtime for many of our competitors during the second quarter," Patel said. "Lyondell Basell has no major planned maintenance for the second quarter at any of the global assets that we operate."

The company's 263,776 barrel-per-day (bpd) Houston refinery is running at nearly full production, said Michael McMurray, chief financial officer.

In the first quarter, the Houston refinery operated at an average 57% of capacity because of the severe cold weather that shut it for about a month beginning in mid-February, McMurray said.

Patel said he hopes that the company's refining segment, which recorded a $110-million loss in the first quarter of 2021, will return to break even in the third quarter of this year.

"We're getting closer to break even," he said. "My hope is that in Q3, we get to break even and Q4, we're positive in the refining business. That depends on the pace of reopening."

(Reporting by Erwin SebaEditing by Chizu Nomiyama and Louise Heavens)